Osmanthus Blossoms Jelly/Guì Huā Gāo (桂花糕)

On my recent tour to Kunming in China, one of the excursions was a visit to an ancient home that once belonged to a famous Chinese general. The main house was located in a courtyard surrounded by beautiful gardens of sweeping willows and water lilies.
Along the perimeter of the gardens were rows of medium height trees with small clusters of yellow and white fragrant Osmanthus Fragrans blossoms. The blossoms have a heady fragrance that is sweet and fruity, it reminds me of sun ripened apricots and peaches--intense and intoxicating, yet not overwhelming. In the afternoon a cool gentle breeze swept through the entire courtyard bringing forth the scent of joy and natural sweetness. It was a delightful experience to be in the midst of it all, as it brings to mind nostalgia of bittersweet and its sentiment.

Osmanthus Blossoms

Soy Bean Pudding/Dau Fu Fah

Douhua 豆花, dòuhuā, or doufuhua 豆腐花 in Chinese literary translates to soybean flower. It is dessert made by cooking soybean milk with calcium sulfate (gypsum) as a coagulant. This popular dessert is found  in most dim sum restaurant. The texture of this wonderful dessert is smooth and silky and delicious when served in a warm sugar syrup. A Japanese friend told me that she used to make all her tofu with nigari, another type of coagulant that is commonly used in Japan. Nigari is magnesium sulphate made by evaporating sea water and can be found in some health food stores. For this post, I'd used gelatin, however, you can also substitute with agar agar powder.

Almond Jelly

Over the weekends, while cleaning in the garage where most of my cooking and blog supplies are stored. In the process of doing that, I found a couple packets of almond flavored agar mix. Agar agar is a vegetarian gelatin substitute produced from a variety of seaweeds. This brought to my mind of the new molds I bought at an antique store.

This is one of the simplest and EASY things to make or should I say a no-brainer dessert. You can serve it with chilled fruit cocktail. I serve mine with some green jelly to resemble grass in the meadows. It would be fun to present it to a fellow who likes cow--might I need to say who?
Ingredients:
1 packet Almond jelly mix (Golden Coins brand is my favorite)
food coloring (if prefer)
1 can fruit cocktail for garnishing
All you need to do is open the box, pour the contents into water. Bring to a boil and pour into rinsed jelly molds. Chill in refrigerator to set and unmold to serve with canned fruits.
Chef's tips: I used a cup less water to get a firmer jelly.

Pandan Jelly

This jelly is made with agar-agar powder and flavored with pandan essence. Pandan, or screwpine is a fragrant green leafy plant that is a widely grown in Malaysia. The leaves are used in cooking rice and the juice is extracted from the leaves to enhance the flavor in desserts and cakes.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
5 cups water (6 cups if you like a softer jelly)
1 can coconut cream (400 ml)
1 box Agar Agar Powder (6 ozs)
1 tsp. pandan paste
a pinch of salt
jelly mold or stainless trays
Method:
1. Rinse molds and set aside. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring water, salt, pandan paste and sugar to a boil. Pour in Agar Agar powder and stir to mix until it dissolve completely. Reduce heat to a simmer for another minute.
2. Pour half of this mixture into jelly molds leaving room for the second layer. Set aside to cool.
3. Mix coconut cream until it is free from lumps and stir into the jelly mixture that is on the stove. Reheat over medium heat. Remove and gently pour this gently over the 1st layer. Chill and leave to set in the refrigerator. Unmold and serve cold.
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Water Chestnuts Jelly/Ma Ti Gao

Water chestnuts is a brown knobby vegetable that resembles a small bulb. Don't be mistaken by its name--as it is not a nut but an aquatic vegetable that grows in wet muddy marshes. You can buy it fresh or canned in most Chinese supermarkets. It has a crunchy texture with a delicate and nutty flavor. This dessert is another treat to prepare for the Chinese New Year.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water chestnut flour
1/4 cup dried chrysanthemum flower
2 1/2 cups water
10-12 wolfberries or goji berries (pre-soaked some water to soften)
10 water chestnuts, peeled and chopped finely
Method:
1. In a medium saucepan, heat water, chrysanthemum flowers and sugar. Stir until sugar has dissolves and lower heat and cook for another 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat and filter away the chrysanthemum.
2. Return liquid to saucepan and add wolfberries, water chestnuts and cook and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir in water chestnut flour slowly and whisk briskly to dissolve. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl or jelly mould to cool and chill overnight in the refrigerator. Unmould and serve or cut into thick slices and pan-fried with a little oil.
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Mango Pudding

If you are dim sum lover, you would love this popular dessert! It is frequently found in the dessert carts when the server roll it over to your table. It is sweet with a rich and silky texture with a refreshing flavor of mango. It is quick and easy to make at home with either fresh or pureed mangoes. You can serve it with a some fresh cream or evaporated milk.
Ingredients:
2 packets (1 Tbsp.) of unflavored gelatin
½ cup sugar (¾ cups if you like it sweeter)
¾ cup hot water (1 cup if you like it softer)
1 cup evaporated milk
3 cups pureed fresh mangoes
5 ice cubes
Method:
1. In a bowl, add gelatin and sugar to hot water and mix well to dissolve and mixture is smooth.
2. In another bowl, mix mango puree, milk and ice cubes. Add in the gelatin mixture and stir until ice cubes are melted.
3. Pour mixture into jelly mould and chill until set, at least 2-4 hours. To serve, dip jelly mould in hot water and turn pudding onto plate. Serve with fresh mango slices and some chilled evaporated milk.
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Sweet Potato Balls with Palm Sugar/Ondeh-Ondeh

  

Onde-Onde is a colorful and delicious Malaysian dessert. Onde-Onde in Javanese, literally means a round or small food in the shape of a sphere. It is a small sweetened dumpling of sweet potato dough filled with Gula Melaka, a rich brown sugar from the palm tree. The cooked dough is coated with freshly grated white coconut. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to get fresh grated coconut, the only alternative is to use the frozen ones imported from the Philippines. It goes by the brand name of "Masagana". The palm sugar, Gula Melaka is wrapped in dried palm leaves and you can find them in Asian supermarket.

Ingredients: (about 24-30 balls)
200 gms. sweet potato, peeled and cubed
200 gms. glutinous rice flour
1 Tbsp. tapioca flour
100 ml. water
25 ml. pandan flavoring essence
6 drops of green coloring
pinch of salt
125 gm. gula melaka, grated
3 tsp. white sugar
150 gm. grated coconut, thawed at room temperature
Method:
1. Steam sweet potatoes until soft and mash finely. Set aside. Mix a pinch of salt with the grated coconut and steam for about 5 minutes and set aside to cool.
2. Combine sugar and grated gula melaka in a bowl. Add glutionious rice flour into a large mixing bowl.
3. In a measuring cup, add in pandan essence, green coloring and water to mix. Pour this into a small saucepan and add in salt and tapioca flour and bring to a boil over low heat. Keep stirring until the mixture is slightly thickens. Remove from heat.
4. Pour this warm mixture into the bowl with the flour, mix well to combine. Add the mashed potato and mix to form a dough. Add a little more glutinous rice flour if the dough gets too soft and if it is too dry, simply wet your hands and knead the dough till it is smooth and pliable. Roll into a long rope, cut into 1" cubes and flatten the dough with the palm of your hand. Spoon about ¼ teaspoon of sugar in the middle of dough. Pinch the edges to seal and roll again into a smooth sphere. Do the same with the rest of the dough in the same manner.

5. Fill a deep saucepan with water halfway and bring to a boil. Drop the balls into the boiling water in small batches and cook until they float to the surface about 3 minutes. Remove the cooked balls with a slotted spoon and roll in grated coconut to coat. Serve with tea.

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Turtle-shaped Rice Cakes/Ang Ku Kuih

Ang Ku Kuih is a Malay word for small bite-sized sweet tea cakes or snacks. They are usually made by hand using molds of intricate designs or roll and wrapped with banana leaves. Ang Ku Kuih (红龟糕) is a small red oval shaped Chinese steamed cake with soft mung bean fillings in the center. The oval shaped Ang ku kuih, (红龟糕) is designed to resemble a tortoise shell which signifies longevity to the Chinese tradition. They are usually served during religious events, birthdays, and the birth of a child. You can easily buy these molds in Malaysia, or simply roll it into an oval or round shape and create your own design. This is a tribute to my late mother who had made this and other kuih everyday for years to sell in the market as another source of income to feed her large family.
Skin ingredients: (makes about 1/ 1/2 dozens)
300 gms glutinous rice flour
200 gms potato flour/starch (or same amount of sweet potato, steamed and mashed)
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
¾ cup warm water
2 tsp. pandan essense
2 tsp. red coloring
1 tsp. sugar
1 sheet banana leaf, cut into several oval shapes
Ang Ku mold
Steamer
Fillings ingredients:
1 packet (14 oz) split mung beans (without skin)
150 gm sugar
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
Method:
1. Wash and soak mung beans overnight to soften. Drain well and steam mung beans with pandan leaf for about 20-30 minutes or until soft. Mash finely and set aside.
2. In a pot, mix mashed beans, sugar and oil and cook over medium heat. Stir continuously until mixture is thick and almost dry. Set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, rub some oil in your palm and roll them into small golf sized balls. (You can also use a teaspoon to spoon the filling into the dough).

3. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients, mashed potato (if used), and sugar together. Mix the pandan essense, oil, red coloring and 1/2 of the water together in a small bowl. Add this to the flour mixture. Mix and knead the mixture to form pliable dough, by adding little water at a time if necessary. Cover with cloth and set aside.

4. Brush the mold with some oil and dust with some rice flour. Shake off excess flour. Take a small amount of dough and flatten to a round, put a ball of the filing in the center. Wrap skin over and close back to a ball making sure the filling is concealed. Press it into the mold and lightly tap it on the table to remove. Place it on a banana leaf. Do the same with the rest of the dough and fillings. Trim around the raw dough before steaming.

5. Fill a steamer with water and steam the kuih on the top rack for 10-15 minutes. Set aside and brush lightly with some oil on top.

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